Power Supply – The Cornerstone of the PC – Top 5 2017

PSUs or Power Supply Units, are often overlooked on a newbie PC builder’s list, I mean come on, they’re all exactly the same, right? Wrong, very wrong, in fact. You see, the PSU inside of a gaming PC could be thought of as the heart of the system, but instead of oxygenated and de-oxygenated blood being pumped through veins and arteries, we have positive and negative DC voltages surging around your system’s power cabling.

Therefore, in this analogy of a heart and cardiovascular system, it is wise to take note that the size of the person’s heart needs to match the scale of the body that it is keeping alive, and the same is true of your gaming rig’s power supply. If your 12v rail can’t supply enough amps to your power hungry graphics card then you will start experiencing strange symptoms like system lock ups, blue screens of death and even random reboots. That’s if your system boots at all…

Then we need to look at the quality of the components inside your PSU, because believe it or not, but not all electrical components and integrate circuits are created equally.

Really cheap smoothing capacitors can have additional signal noise in them, resulting in your hardware malfunctioning, or even failing over time. It is for this reason that we bring you a quick over view of 5 of the best PSUs on the market currently available in 2017.

Wattage is the main unit of measurement that is used these days when talking about PSU capacity, and we will take a few examples from each category to create a balanced list for your purchasing considerations.

Spare a thought for the entry level segment of the market, won’t you? This is where many people start off when building up a gaming system with an Intel i3 or i5 CPU with a single graphics card and one or 2 hard drives, and even perhaps an optical drive, if you’re feeling nostalgic.

The SeaSonic sports a semi modular cable management system which means that some of the main PSU cables that feed your system graphic cards, hard drives and motherboard can be detached from the PSU entirely if you are not using all of them.

This makes it much easier to cable manage as you can just leave whatever doesn’t need to be connected in a box in the attic until you expand your peripherals as they can be installed later.

Being semi modular is typical of an entry level PSU like this, but what it lacks in cable management, it certainly makes up for in amps! This PSU has a claimed amp output of 45amps, which is really good for such a small wattage PSU. To put it into perspective, an Nvidia GTX 180 consumes 180w of power, so 180x / 12v would give you an amp draw of only 15A.

That makes this little PSU a great choice for an entry level to mid range gaming PC build.

A more midrange option is this, the Corsair AX 760. This PSU features a fully modular design that will cater for all of your cable management needs, as well as a solid 63A on its 12v rail. That equates to some decent power for your gaming rig, with multi graphics card setups definitely being possible.

For it’s specifications, it is a little on the pricey side, but Corsair is a solid brand, and this unit comes with a ridiculously good 7 year warranty. Chances are that this PSU will be with you for several of your next PC build in the future.

Performance is good, and the 80Plus Gold Platinum certification means that this PSU won’t let you down in the voltage supply quality arena either.

If you have a tasty PC build on the horizon that requires a dual SLI setup or a CrossFireX install, then this PSU will do the job quite nicely. There isn’t much that an 850w, platinum rated, 70A PSU cant handle, to be honest.

While we’re not quite at the top of the pile with this offering, we aren’t exactly that far off either, with a smooth powerful supply of voltage being supplied by this mid ranged monster, it is hard to think of another PSU in this price range that can compete with it.

Built with only the highest quality components and backed with a full 10 year warranty, this might be the only PSU that you will ever buy.

The fact that such a high wattage rating and such an efficient rating of 80Plus Titanium really is something to marvel at, as this makes it something of a rarity in the PSU power efficiency stakes.

We are into the server end of the PSU ratings now so I’m sure that you can appreciate the hardware that can be powered up by this unit. There is a lot of fire power provided by this beast and the unit itself looks great.

Another 10 year warranty ensures that you are buying a quality product that has been sold to you with confidence. This is a great PSU at a great price.

With the power of a small sun at its core, the SuperNOVA 1600T2 is a take no prisoners, no compromise PSU that has been build for the competitive PC builder or for the gamer that is looking for the ultimate bragging rights.

The power output on this unit is insane, topping out at 133A. This means that if you are into overclocking your CPU and all 4 of your GTX 1080s, then your voltage needs will be met quite comfortably with this beast.

As with our other high end competitors, this unit comes with a 10 year warranty and is rated at the highest efficiency certification that we have at present.If you are serious about your build then this PSU is hard to beat.

The Verdict

Hopefully this review will help you understand a little better the inside workings of your PCs power requirements, and what ratings you should be looking out for on a PSU. There is more to buying a PSU than just checking out the colour of its LED fan.

Almost as important are the modular designs of your next PSU, and how the cabling needs to cater for your specific needs. You need to be mindful of all of these details if you are going to build a PC that you can be proud of fot the next few years to come.

Luckily there are power ratings on most if not all of the hardware that you purchase these days, and it is easy to visit the manufacturer’s website to help you to calculate your amp and wattage needs.

So the next time you look at building a PC, spare a bit of thought for the beating heart within your PC that is your PSU, and make sure you follow our guidelines to make the right choice for your build.

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